The price added about $100 overnight after the referendum's preliminary figures showed Britain is likely to leave the EU. At the moment, the correction phase seems to kick in.

At 4 pm GMT yesterday the bitcoin price started to grow from a low of $563. By 5 pm, it passed $600 and by 5 am today it reached the maximum of $679. In press time, however, correction slide has begun and now one bitcoin oscillates around $660.

According to Bitcoinity, the total amount of trades increased to reach 3.84 million BTC, the highest mark since the end of May when bitcoin started to grow after six months of relative stability. While the majority of transactions take place on Chinese exchanges OkCoin and Huobi, most experts link recent fluctuations in the bitcoin price to the EU referendum in Britain.

With 100% of votes counted, 51.9% of British choose to leave the EU while 48.1% voted to remain, says Telegraph. And while the famous bitcoin volatility is back, it is not the only currency to react to the referendum results. The British pound lost 7% against the dollar falling to $1.37, the lowest level since 1985.

On the eve of the referendum, it seemed that the UK would vote for staying in the EU (“Bremain”). According to many experts, these expectations were behind the recent plunge in the bitcoin price (and a spike in the price of the British pound, which reached $1.50). But now, with a total macroeconomic uncertainty resulting from the choice of “Brexit” (for instance, the rating agency Standard & Poor confirmed that the UK is likely to lose its AAA credit rating), bitcoin regains ground, being seen as a “safe haven”.

Yesterday, Arthur Hayes, co-founder and CEO of BitMEX exchange, predicted that the cryptocurrency may grow to $700 if Britain votes to leave the EU.

Alexey Tereshchenko